Tolerate: to allow;exist or occur without interference.
Intolerance: unable or indisposed to tolerate; unwillingness to recognise and respect

I have always considered myself quite a nice person. I like food of all shapes, flavours and colours. From every country and continent. I don’t discriminate, I am an equal opportunity eater. It’s only the doctors who say I’m intolerant. And certain foods who refuse to tolerate me. They certainly refuse to recognise and respect my right to eat them without major physical discomfort and distress.

Gluten and lactose are not my friends.

Despite the negative attitudes surrounding me from many of those I love best, (cakes, ice cream, hot toast) I decided to become a chef. Not always easy when you live in a bread and milk filled world. I like to think that this has helped me become a better person as I embrace my differences and refuse to let the gluten get me down. I believe InTolerance. I am the InTolerant Chef.

Food should not be about what you can’t eat, but what you can and what you enjoy eating. This blog is about my journey of cooking and eating and discovery. It’s not a definitive guide to allergy awareness nor do my intolerances make me an expert. Your body is your responsibility, not mine. I only know what works for me.

I can tell you this..... No glutens were harmed in the making of this website.

September 18, 2013

Cinnamon Scented Goat Curry

BigJ's family come from good farming stock

His Mother's family ran the town dairy, his uncles grew wheat, and raised the odd animal or two for table. His step dad's side were sheep people and even now his step dad has a miniature shearing shed with working shears in his suburban backyard.

One of the benefits of family farms is that everyone chips in when there's work to be done- shearing, grading...and butchering. The family often dispatched a job lot of beasties for the freezer and when we were married we often came into a share of the goodies for ourselves.

Farm meat tastes very different from supermarket meat. The sheep were often a bit older than those typically sold on polystyrene trays, and has a stronger flavour that we really love. If we manage to get up in time on the weekend we can usually grab a roast of Mutton or Hogget at the Farmers Market, or if we don't get our fix there we can get some wonderful young goat meat from the butcher instead as it's so similar and one we eat quite often as well.

Young goat meat is lovely, not stringy or gamey at all. I did a taste test with some friends where I cooked a leg of lamb and a leg of goat side by side, served them up identical slices and asked them which they liked more. Every single one picked the goat because it was just so tasty, and every single one was surprised! I wasn't.

Although young goat can be cooked exactly the same as lamb nowadays, and doesn't require long slow cooking, I just happened to want to make a warming curry for the wet Spring weather we are currently enjoying. I've taken the recipe from The Curry Cookbook- one of those compilation books that doesn't give individual authors but is a mix of the publishers favourites I guess :)

Pop the meat into a non-reactive bowl and rub in the vinegar and salt. Let it sit for half an hour or so

I always like to brown the meat off before braising as I think it adds a better depth of flavour, but you can skip this step if you can't be bothered :)

Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil on low heat, then add the cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Let the sizzle away for 30 seconds and let the lovely spicy fragrance fill the air

Bring the heat up to medium, then add in the onions and cook until the onion is soft

Add in the ginger and garlic puree and cook off for another couple of minutes, then put in the cumin, turmeric and chilli powder and stir for another minute or so. This will toast off the spices and help release their full flavour potential

Pop in the tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes are more of a paste like consistency and the oil separates from the paste a little

From this:

To this:

Now add in the meat, fenugreek leaves and water

Bring up to a simmer

Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 45 mins or so until the meat is nice and tender

Stir in the chopped spinach and let the residual heat wilt it down into the sauce

I served my curry on some steamed rice with a side of Masala Aloo- yummy spiced potatoes
Wonderful warm spices, earthy and sweet, tender meat all wrapped up in a steamy fragrant sauce...Perfect for rainy nights and thunderstorms

So Dear Readers, do you come from the Town or Country, and have you ever eaten goat?

Becca darling, I had dinner with my aunt last night, and serendipitously, she was telling me how she added cinnamon to her chicken curry as well! I've never done that before, but I'm certainly going to try now! I can't get my Pete to eat goat, but we have access to young goat (capretto, the Italians call it), so maybe I'll have to try again. He's going to complain though, you know that, right? :)

That's a wonderful hearty meal and yes, I do love farm life and I truly believe these true-blue Aussies have so much they can teach us about a 'proper' way to live. I actually have never tried goat (it's not that readily available) but haven't heard a bad thing about it xx

I love goat in two ways - Greek style roast and curry. And yours look truly delicious. I've always used cinnamon in my south Indian / Malaysian style curries and the aromas from the combination of cumin, cloves, cardamom and turmeric are heavenly. I've never used fenugreek leaves though, only the seeds.

About Me

The InTolerant Chef is the nom-de-plume of The InTolerant Chef.She lives in Canberra,Australia,with her husband Big J, and 2 daughters, Little j and Middle C. Gluten and Lactose are not her friends. She also has many chemicals who refuse to tolerate her, and insulin finds her hard to resist. Despite all this, the InTolerant Chef is a healthy,happy person who loves cooking for her family and friends.